FIG. 163 —Fruits of the Barouni olive (S. P. I. No.12569) grown at the plant introduction garden Chico, Calif. Fruiting branch from nonirrigated tree
OLIVES of the Barouni Variety Do Well
In the Mediterranean countries where the olive has been cultivated for centuries it is in many areas one of the staple foods of the laboring classes. When playing this important role it is not the pickled green olive nor the stuffed green pickle commonly known on the American table that is used, but the ripened fruit cured in salt, which makes a most nutritious and apparently healthful product. The ripe olive is less well known in America and is very rarely used here as a dried, salted product. However, methods of processing and canning the ripe fruit have been developed which have resulted in a product greatly relished by many who have become familiar with it. At the present time an area of about 100 acres is planted to the Barouni variety in California.
In the fall of 1904 one of the department’s explorers traveling in northern Africa obtained from the premises of M. Robert, of Kalaa-Srira, near Susa, Tunis, a variety of olive known as Barouni, which has proved adapted to the olive-growing areas of the southwestern United States and is of special value as a ripe pickle olive. T. H. Kearney, who obtained the variety, wrote at the time: “This is the largest olive in the country, and M. Robert’s is about the only place where it can be secured.” Nine small cuttings of this variety were forwarded to the department’s plant introduction garden at Chico, Calif., and received there January 12, 1905.
Three trees were grown from these cuttings and planted in the trial grounds. After a few years when they came into bearing the fruits were of such large size that they at once attracted special attention and indicated the probable value of the variety for commercial use. (Fig. 163.) However, it seems possible that the large-sized fruits might be due in part to the trees being young and producing but a light crop, and the production of subsequent years was necessary to establish its real merits. The tree of the Barouni is extremely vigorous and free growing. (Fig. 164.) It is rather precocious, bearing while quite young and maturing fruits of large size and excellent quality about 10 days ahead of the Mission variety. In size it is much larger than the Mission, comparing favorably in this respect with the Sevillano and Ascolano, which are used for the queen olives of our commercial trade. It has a good oil content, being similar to the Mission in this respect. The pit is comparatively free, but inclined to be a little large. It takes lye readily and is easily pickled. When utilized for commercial canning the Barouni should be picked from when it turns a straw yellow to when it has a purple tinge on the tip. When gathered at this stage the oil content varies from 12.75 to 16 per cent, and when allowed to mature fully on the tree it contains about 18 per cent of oil. One large tree at the plant introduction garden when 11 years old produced 328 pounds of fruit, or at the rate of 10 tons of olives to the acre.
The Barouni can be propagated from cuttings or by grafting the same as other varieties of olive. When top working trees, bark grafting is quite commonly practiced.
